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Story

Sustainability on a Roll

#Flexible packaging paper#Packaging paper#Coated paper

Reusable cutlery is in – a trend that has not come from social media for once, but from legislation. In 2021, the European Union introduced a ban on single-use plastic cutlery, sparking a rethink among operators of commercial kitchens, hospitals, and catering companies. If plastic was no longer an option, they wanted to be rid of plastic in cutlery packaging too. Franz Veit GmbH and Koehler Paper show how it can be done.

Sometimes it’s impossible to do without packaging altogether, for example if a catering company is putting together meals for thousands of airline pas­sengers. It is essential that staff are able to put the entire set of cutlery, napkin included, onto the table in one fell swoop. Besides saving time, hygiene is an important factor. If cutlery is offered openly for customers to help themselves, lots of different people touch it and bacteria and viruses can be transmitted. This is a risk that must be avoided, particularly in communal settings such as canteens.

800

sets of cutlery can be ­processed by a packaging machine per hour.

Sustainable Packaging Partnership

Hygienic wrapping that’s sustainable too – Franz Veit GmbH and Koehler Paper have created a joint plastic-free packaging solution to meet this very requirement. Koehler Paper manufactures Koehler NexPlus® Seal Pure paper, while Franz Veit, a ­packaging specialist from Hirschaid, Franconia, cuts it to the desired width and winds it onto rolls that are designed to fit the cutlery packaging machines perfectly. Not only that: “We print the customer’s design on the paper using printing ink approved for contact with food. Koehler NexPlus® paper is perfect for this, because it is particularly smooth and the colors adhere well,” explains ­Managing Director Christoph Ettel.

In the packaging machine, the paper web is shaped into a pouch into which the knife, fork, and spoons – a large one for soup and a smaller one for dessert – are dropped. The napkin is placed on top. The sealing unit presses the edges together until the cutlery pouch is sealed all the way around. Nothing can fall out, the contents stay clean and dry, and most importantly, all of the elements stay together. “A machine can process up to 800 sets of cutlery per hour in this way,” explains Bernhard Eberlein, Head of Sales for Industrial Rolls at Franz Veit. “This is the expected output regardless of whether the machine is working with plastic film or flexible packaging paper. The pouches must always be sealed silently and separated precisely.”

Christoph Ettel

We are the roll specialist.

Christoph Ettel
Managing Director of Franz Veit GmbH

Tear-Proof and Recyclable

Koehler NexPlus® meets this requirement because this is the exact purpose for which it was developed and optimized by the experts at Koehler Paper. “We ensure the paper runs as quickly through the machine as film,” explains Christoph Wachter, Director of Flexible Packaging Paper Division at Koehler Paper. “At the same time, the paper is durable and tear-proof. That is incredibly important in cutlery packaging to prevent the fork prongs from poking through.” Mr. Wachter also highlights the fresh fiber content of the paper – after all, the cutlery is for putting food in your mouth. Plus, the used cutlery wrapper can be recycled with waste paper, helping customers to achieve their own ­sustainability goals.

Paper runs through the machine as quickly as film.

Christoph Wachter
Director Flexible Packaging Paper Division at Koehler Paper
Christoph Wachter

Rolls Wide or Narrow

Christoph Ettel praises the fact that his company has been working with Koehler Paper for some years on flexible packaging paper, and the partnership is going extremely well. It is a continuation of a decades-long cooperation that started with thermal paper. “We turn the large rolls we get from paper manufacturers like Koehler Paper into lots of small rolls,” says Mr. Ettel, describing the core business of Franz Veit GmbH. The company made a name for itself from checkout rolls and is now the market leader. Many of the paper strips that stream out of cash registers in German supermarkets, gas stations, and fast food restaurants are cut to size at the company’s two sites in Upper Franconia and Saxony. However, narrow widths are not a problem for Franz Veit either – four millimeters, to be precise. The company is Europe’s biggest manufacturer of streamers and produces the decorative celebration strips for occasions such as Halloween, New Year’s Eve, and Germany’s Oktoberfest – in the classic five color stripes, with a metallic look, or using the customer’s design. Franz Veit also supplies many different branches of industry. Metal-processing businesses use interleaving paper sheets to ensure freshly rolled parts for car bodies do not get scratched. In the construction industry, rolls of roofing felt are wrapped in paper, and the food industry is increasingly using paper bowls and plates as customers turn away from plastic and opt for more sustainable solutions.

Franz Veit GmbH

2

sites

118

years of experience

200

employees

40.000

metric tons of paper are processed per year

Bernhard Eberlein

Things that were packaged in film ­yesterday will be packaged in ­paper tomorrow.

Bernhard Eberlein
Head of Sales for Industrial Rolls at Franz Veit GmbH

Koehler NexPlus® barrier properties for food

Cookies need to be as dry as possible, nuts don’t like oxygen, and ­chocolate is greasy. All of these foods are in good hands with Koehler NexPlus® paper, and the barriers against oxygen, water vapor, UV ­radiation, grease, and mineral oils can be combined on a modular basis.

The Future is Plastic-Free

Many branches of industry are battling against economic fluctuations. As a result, Mr. Ettel is sounding out future-proof, stable business areas for his company and values the strong partnership with Koehler Paper and its flexible packaging paper. “Things that were packaged in film yesterday will be packaged in Koehler NexPlus® paper to­morrow,” agrees Mr. Eberlein. Both managers see the biggest prospects in the food industry, and not just because of the old platitude that “people will always need to eat.” Christoph Wachter agrees with these predictions, highlighting the versatility of flexible packaging paper. Because of modular barriers against oxygen, grease, water vapor, and mineral oils, many dif­ferent foodstuffs that are currently still wrapped in film on grocery store shelves could actually be packaged in paper. He has no doubts: “The future belongs to paper.”

Tear it open with a clear conscience

The modular properties of Koehler NexPlus®
The modular properties of Koehler NexPlus®

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